A week ago I received a job offer. I counteroffered and 3 days later they told the recruiter that they denied my counteroffer and were rescinding the offer altogether. No explanation. Have you ever encountered this before? – Terri
Congrats, you got a job offer! Now avoid these counteroffer mistakes in your salary negotiation.
Having a job offer rescinded for making a counteroffer during the salary negotiation is rare. In over 20 years of recruiting, I have only seen it firsthand one single time: A senior manager in advisory services had verbally accepted an offer after a long back-and-forth. Not a week later, he asked yet again for more money (and not a lot of money, less than five percent of the total package). Not only did the prospective employer decline the counter, but they pulled the offer altogether.
In the senior manager case, the deciding factor wasn’t that the candidate made a counteroffer on salary. The candidate counteroffered multiple times during the long earlier negotiation, as did the prospective employer. What killed the offer was that the candidate had gone back on their word and could no longer be trusted.
Mistake 1 – Don’t accept the job before making your counteroffer
Terri doesn’t mention accepting the offer and then counteroffering after the fact. However, maybe Terri inadvertently did that by appearing to accept the original offer. This might happen if Terri had earlier proposed the salary that was offered, and the counter was for a new, higher number. You absolutely can renegotiate if you propose a lower salary early on in the hiring process (here’s how) but it’s critical that you don’t say outright you would accept that role at that salary.
Mistake 2 – Don’t issue an ultimatum (or even seem threatening in any way)
Another key mistake to avoid when delivering your counteroffer is to make it an ultimatum: “I can’t accept anything less than X” for example. Maybe you felt the salary offered was low, and in the heat of the moment, your tone let on that you were offended. Unfortunately, the prospective employer may take your emotional response as anger and feel threatened or simply annoyed. You want a collaborative back-and-forth.
The ideal first response to any offer – even one with a terrible, lowball, you’ve-got-to-be-kidding-me salary number – is: “I’m so excited at the prospect of working together. I’m sure I’ll have questions about the offer. Can we set up some time to discuss after I’ve had a chance to review it?” This works because the first sentence is unequivocally positive, but at the same time, you don’t accept the offer (see Mistake 1). The next sentence plants the seed that there will be back-and-forth, but you don’t specify about what. This way, you don’t give anything away prematurely while you’re still thinking about your negotiation strategy. The last sentence pushes the negotiation out to the future, buying you time to think about what you’re going to ask for and how you’ll do it. You want time to prepare exactly what you’re asking for since it might be more than salary, such as non-monetary factors like flexibility.
Mistake 3 – Don’t assume rejection of your counteroffer is the end of the negotiation
When you do make your counteroffer, expect some pushback so you’re not deterred when it comes. To be a strong negotiator, you need to be able to move forward after hearing “No” (here are ways to overcome 10 common negotiating obstacles) Negotiating all aspects of the job offer can take several rounds of going back and forth. Even the most straightforward job has multiple items to confirm, all of which can be negotiated – salary, title, start date, exact job duties, who your direct manager would be. For management and executive roles, the compensation structure typically has multiple moving parts — salary, performance bonus, company stock, retirement contributions, etc. – each of which might require negotiation.
Companies appreciate good negotiation skills
Making a counteroffer to the first job offer is generally a good thing. As long as you don’t fold at the first No, you don’t issue ultimatums or make threats and the counteroffer isn’t a surprise after the prospective employer already thinks you’ve accepted, then you will be OK. In fact, you’ll be more than OK when you showcase your savvy negotiating skills, and your new employer is even more excited that you’ll be joining and on their side of the negotiating table the next time.
